John Tortorella happy with Jackets' improvement on road trip
The New Jersey Devils avoided matching their longest losing streak of the season by beating an arch-rival.
Now they can't afford another slip-up against a Metropolitan Division foe that has been a thorn in their side.
The Devils have dropped four straight to the Columbus Blue Jackets heading into Thursday night's matchup at Nationwide Arena.
Covverage begins at 6:30 p.m. on FOX Sports Ohio
New Jersey (30-24-7) ended a three-game slide with Tuesday's 5-2 home win over the New York Rangers. The Devils posted their highest goal total in 13 games by rallying from a goal down after one period as five different players scored.
"It's a huge rivalry game, you always want to beat those teams," said winger Lee Stempniak, who ended a personal nine-game goal drought.
The losing streak has seen the Devils drop outside the playoff picture, and they know they must improve down the stretch.
''It's a big win,'' Stempniak said. ''You can see where we are in the standings. Losing three games, it's tough to keep pace with teams. To not get points in three straight, you are going to fall behind.''
New Jersey could use two points Thursday against the division's worst team, although Columbus (24-29-8) likely poses a bigger threat than its place in the standings suggests.
The Blue Jackets are 7-2-3 in their last 12 games and, more pertinent to this matchup, have taken the last four between the teams. That includes a pair of low-scoring road contests this season, 3-1 on Oct. 27 and 2-1 on Nov. 25.
Columbus returns home after winning 6-4 at Boston on Monday and losing 2-1 in a shootout in Detroit the next night. Boone Jenner scored three goals in those games to give him 22 to match Brandon Saad for the team lead.
The Blue Jackets outshot both opponents, and coach John Tortorella was happy with the trip.
"That's where I think our biggest improvement is, is when there are surges and there is momentum coming at you, we just stay with it, we don't break away and open up, we don't try to do too much, we just settle ourselves down and play," Tortorella said. "And for the most part with this trip here, we have done a really good job with that."
It may be difficult to translate that solid play over at home, where Columbus has scored one goal in back-to-back defeats.
Curtis McElhinney made his first start since Jan. 2 on Tuesday after being out with an ankle injury. Joonas Korpisalo, who started the previous 12 games, has never faced the Devils.
The Devils will have to figure out how to use their goalies in the start of a back-to-back set capped by Friday's home game against Tampa Bay. Cory Schneider is 0-3-1 with a 2.80 goals-against average in his last four starts against the Blue Jackets while backup Keith Kinkaid is the other option.
New Jersey's goalies have had to endure playing in front of an offense that is the league's worst in goals (2.2) and shots on goal (24.6) per game.
